Ju'Lya nah Folrik

Ju’Lya nah Folrik heads the Ministry of Intergalactic Sports, the only institution the whole galaxy L.G.L.M.D.T recognises apart from the Arazian census. She is Sayopian, and that is the very reason she was appointed: Sayop is neutral in every quarrel in the galaxy, and nobody wanted a minister from one of the camps.

Before she wore the ministry’s midnight-blue jacket, she was the finest STer’ennis plak player the galaxy had seen.

STer’ennis plak

STer’ennis plak is the most widely played sport in the galaxy. It closely resembles the tennis of the Terrans: two players, a net, a rally, a point won when the opponent fails to return.

Everything else differs:

• The plak is the racket — an open oval frame in pale alloy, strung in a double bed, with a long handle. The forward bed strikes, the rear bed absorbs.
• The ster is the ball. Smooth, the size of an apple, run through by a filament that glows a little brighter with every exchange: the longer the point, the faster the ster travels.
• The court is played in reduced gravity. Rallies climb as much as they advance, and a long point always ends in the air.

A point ends when the ster touches the floor twice, or when its filament burns out — the rally is then credited to both players, and nobody scores. It is the rule the Arazians hate most.

The champion

Ju’Lya played fourteen galactic seasons and won eleven titles. She retired undefeated in a final: no player, of any species, ever beat her on the day that counted.

Her reputation rests not on power but on how she read the ster: she knew, before anyone else, when the filament was about to die. She played the ends of points the way one closes a door.

The ministry

The ministry sits on Sayop and organises the Great Games of L.G.L.M.D.T. It is the only place in the galaxy where the Empire of Araze and the Cyborg dominion of Karn-Tor IX turn up in the same place at the same hour without shooting at each other — and both delegations want it to stay that way, without ever saying so aloud.

Ju’Lya holds only one power, but it is a real one: she decides who plays. A delegation barred from the Great Games loses a great deal more than a tournament.

The file never opened

A file on the admission of Earth to the Great Games exists at the ministry. It was assembled, filed, and never opened: humans officially know nothing of the other civilisations, and an invitation would end that in a single sentence. The archives do not say who asked for it to be opened, nor why the request was refused.

Archivist’s note

Her full name is Ju’Lya nah Folrik: the borne name, then the particle nah and the Sayopian line she comes from. The ministry writes it that way on every document; the sporting registers have always made do with Ju’Lya, and she has never bothered to correct them.